Missed Miscellaneous Items - 1/2/09

Seattle PI Guest Columnist. We were forwarded the attached article from the Dec 14th Seattle PI and asked why we have not passed it on. The column appear first in the Olympian and then in the Post Intelligencer. The link to the article is http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/392115_firstperson15.html

Robins Here are Not Local. We sent out an Update yesterday that stated the robins being observed this winter were local. We were wrong. According to the Audubon experts, they are not local Robins as noted in the attached response received, but rather migrants.

Hey Jim:

By the way, an interesting note from my aunt. The robins we have here in the summer are not the same as the ones we have here in the winter. They all migrate north/south during those seasons. Our winter robins spend summer season nesting further north of here. Our summer nesting robins spend winter further south. Robin behavior dictates they flock-up during winter, then pair up for nesting activity in spring.

Other Wildlife Notes. We were also remiss in not noting that one of the local ravens appears to have a cold or something because of his strange cawing. They are mostly heard around the Illahee Preserve.

Some seals were reported working the shoreline after corralling some kind of fish and one of the bald eagles was able to get a fish in the process. There were even a river otter trying to get in on the action.

A red breasted sapsucker was sighted when the persons cat became interested in a nearby tree. One of the sounds made by the red-breasted sapsucker is a meow like a cat. They didn't hear the "meow" sound but surmised that something attracted the cat to the tree.

More Snowbrush Bush Information. Attached are two websites with more information on Snowbrush bushes, which are native plants in this area.

http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=CEVE

http://www.cwnp.org/photopgs/cdoc/cevelutinus.html

Thank you for keeping us informed. We get a number of emails everyday and sometimes get behind. We don't mind reminders. We especially like emails where can simply paste your comments.

Jim Aho

Miscellaneous Items - 1/1/09

New Years Greetings!

Lost Dog Report on 1/1/09.

We lost our female, great pryenees (big white dog) on a walk on the beach 1/1/09 about half way between the Illahee dock and the Brownsville marina. Her name is Koda and she is very friendly. Please call 360-633-7224 if you see/find her.

Thank you, Josh Jablonski

Website Used. Josh used the illaheecommunity.com website email address to post his lost dog notice. We want to send it out via email as not everyone monitors the website. Website posts are forwarded to several of us so if you want to get something out to the community quickly, send it to the website and it is likely someone will respond soon.

More Hummingbird Items. We continue to be amazed at the number of hummingbirds that winter over in our area, and the response we had to our email updates. Attached is the most authoritative we've received, from our blog:

fieldguidetohummingbirds has left a new comment on your post "Miscellaneous Items - 12/21/08":

The wildlife rescue person misinformed you. The commercial hummingbird "food" sold in most stores (a.k.a. "instant nectar") contains no extra nutrition. It's just overpackaged, overpriced sugar with unnecessary dyes, flavorings, preservatives. There is a complete artificial diet for hummingbirds, but it's very expensive, not sold in ordinary pet stores, and only necessary for long-term captive hummingbirds.

Free-living wild hummingbirds get the bulk of their nutrition from eating insects and spiders, and while there are not many of those to be had when the temperatures get very cold, your local Anna's Hummingbirds are tough and cold hardy and can get by on sugar water until the weather gets back to normal.

You're already doing the best thing you can do to help them survive unusually cold weather by to making your sugar water a little stronger than normal. A solution of 3 parts water to one part sugar will give them extra energy as well as freezing at a lower temperature than the standard 4:1 solution. Any stronger than that it it starts becoming too syrupy and hard to drink. See my blog for more. http://fieldguidetohummingbirds.wordpress.com/2008/12/20/helping-hummingbirds-through-winter-weather/

Robins. We received the following email and can respond that there are a number of robins that winter here. We're not sure what the red berried bush is though which is visible in the first attached photo. There were a number of robins and varied thrushes observed near the Illahee Preserve during the snow. They were working the underbrush areas where the snow had not accumulated.

Robin or not ... we love our wildlife, and just a few days ago, a 'flock' of about 6-8 "robins" appeared in the yard. Their target was a rigid bush growing up the chimney which was full of red berries. Don't know what the bush is.. but the birds picked the branches clean and then went on their way ... isn't it too early for robins ??

Maybe your addressees might know what kind of bird this was ..

Snow Issues. We know that a number of Illahee residents were snowed in until this past Sunday. The most surprising for some was View Crest Drive, and at this time of year it is often referred to as Candy Cane Lane, when they went to view the Christmas lights on the evening of the 25th and found the street had not been cleared and they were barely able to get through. Evidently neither did the mailman for over a week to the disappointment of many residents.

Roosevelt Street. Roosevelt is probably one of the steepest roads in Illahee and one of the residents sent in the following snow comment to us early on, and probably wishes we had sent it out earlier:

Snowbound as we are near the top of the hill on NE Roosevelt, and with snow still falling, and with the prospect that we may not be able to get out by car until late this week, or whenever we have a significant thaw, I started wondering if there might be other Illahee residents who might want to contract for snow-removal service in the future. Maybe we won't have another snow like this in our lifetimes, but the idea seemed worth bringing up.

Snowbrush. One of the more interesting shrubs around is the Snowbrush which is a native evergreen, it was especially susceptible to the heavy snow. Several residents went walking in the snow by Audrey Boyer's residence on Ocean View during one snowy night during the storm and found Audrey working on trying to get several fallen Snowbrush branches out of her driveway. They helped her cut them up and haul them aside. We have attached some photos of Snowbrush shrubs in case you are not familiar with them. There are a number of them on Rest Place that came down as shown in the last photo.

Keep Passing on Information.

Jim Aho